November 2008
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Fun with personalities
Keeping Linux Safe Since 1994 is my latest at Linux Journal. It’s fun with Typeanalyzer. Try it on your blog, and see what it says. Don’t be surprised if the results are different than those for yourself. Continue reading
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Bailing on the bailout
Back in September or so I blogged in favor of the $700 billion stimulus package. In those days, now so long ago, I thought, against my otherwise better judgement, that we needed to do something. Now I don’t. Now I think we need to let the train wreck finish happening before we “stimulate” anything. If… Continue reading
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Unexpected but inevitable pops
What if every product category, every business, is a bubble — and some just last longer? We know the newspaper business was a bubble. It lasted over a century, but here we are, at the end of it. Papers will still be around, for the same reason that railroads and mainframe computers are still around.… Continue reading
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Required re-reading
A pause this Thanksgiving weekend to appreciate The Word Detective, which has been around forever, which is to say since 1995. I remember The Word Dectective from way back in the Early Daze, when there were relatively few websites (say, 103 or 104, 5 or 6 of them) and it was already obvious, to their… Continue reading
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Prodigyous
Ze says this blogger is 12. His hedge, which I second: I will say that if this is some weird viral H&M marketing scheme, I will be very angry. Continue reading
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Obituaries on hold
Shel Holtz lists all the techs whose reported deaths are still exaggerated. Hat tip to Zane Safrit. Continue reading
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Nice validation
Of The Open Source Force Behind the Obama Campaign, Joe Trippi writes, I’ve never read a more accurate explanation of how the Linux movement and Open Source influenced and formed the foundational thinking for the political movement that, now, has helped produce Barack Obama’s Victory. Continue reading
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The government crash
The amazing thing about crashes is that you can see them coming. They’re not surprises like earthquakes or meteor impacts. A sure sign of their approach is too much speculative lending, which contributes to the boom that sets up the bust. We saw it in housing in the 70s and 80s, which led to the… Continue reading
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“Bloggers unpacking issues…
…that remain hidden from public view.” That’s just one phrase just uttered by Antony Lowenstein, author of The Blogging Revolution and speaker at lunch here at the Berkman Center. The talk, which is a debate/q&a, is going on now (12:44pm), and being webcast live. Strong stuff. Many of the bloggers he’s talking about are in… Continue reading
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Signs of the Places
I was early for a talk by Irving Wladawsky-Berger at Harvard Law School a couple hours ago (just one among many terrific talks that go on around here) when I got in a conversation with Victoria Stodden about localities. Both of us have lives and affections split between Cambridge and California. As the weather gets… Continue reading
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Rebooting everything
Things really are going from bad to worse. Trees do not grow to the sky. True for countries as well as companies. Bonus exchange. Continue reading
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This girl needs a kidney
From Chris Brogan via JP, a call to re-tweet: Sew hoping for a miracle. Here is an earlier picture (and post about) Marielle, by her mom, the blogger Sue (aka Sew), of The Domestic Diva. Marielle is dying, literally, for a kidney match. Pass the word along. Somebody somewhere should be able to help. Continue reading
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For thinking out loud
Four knowing and provocative posts by Steve Lewis: Infrastructural Convergence: Broadband over Power Lines An Intellectual’s Ascent to the White House and the Half-Century Decline of American Conservatism from Intellectuality to Ignorance Purple vs. Pixelated: The Obsolecence of States and the Reality of Differences Viktor Klemperer, Values-Based Identity, German and Dutch Perspectives Online, and… Continue reading
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Great Radio Meets Great YouTube
When I was driving up from Santa Barbara to San Francisco on Sunday, I was listening to KPIG for awhile, and caught an amazing version of “Singing the Blues“, which was a huge country-pop crossover hit for Guy Mitchell in 1956. It was casual and enthusiastic and about as “country” as it gets. Loved it,… Continue reading
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Not bad for a tube-powered guy
According to this my geek cred is 27 out of 50. Like Alec (who scored 41), I come up short on the gaming and entertainment hacking front. I woulda done better if there were items like, “Have changed bulbs on a broadcast tower,” “Rembember Ohm’s Law,” “Built a Heathkit” or “Know what ‘millimhos’ are”. (Clue.)… Continue reading
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Toward the end of the “social” bubble
In VRM is Personal, I say this… “Social” is a bubble. Trust me on this. I urge all consultants on “social ______” (fill in the blank) to make hay while the sun shines. Even as the current depression deepens, lots of companies are starting to realize that this “social” thing is hot stuff and they… Continue reading
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From Brighton to Beachy Head
There wasn’t much to see during the redeye from Boston to Zürich and on to Amsterdam yesterday. Too bad, because the Swissair window was one of the cleanest and clearest I’ve seen yet. But I did get a nice quick series of the East Sussex coast, with its white cliffs, from Brighton to Beachy Head,… Continue reading
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Tea Fire update
Looks like the evacuation notices have been lifted. And The Map (which is very well done) now has two pages showing the status in the area, including (near as I can tell) all 211 burned structures, nearly all of them homes. My shots of the aftermath are here. Hard to believe I’m in Boston now,… Continue reading